Month: March 2016

You might have noticed we have the London Mayoral and Assembly elections coming up in May. This weekend we held the official launch of local candidate, and Newham Green Party Chair, Rachel Collinson, who is running as the candidate for City and East.

Assembly Member Baroness Jenny Jones presided over the launch, which took place in Shoreditch, by the proposed site of the controversial £800 million development of Bishopsgate Goodsyard. This proposal has been rejected by local residents as well as Tower Hamlets and Hackney Councils, and has also been opposed by the Green Party.

Rachel said “The controversy surrounding the planned development of Bishopsgate Goodsyard is a perfect illustration of what is wrong with London’s urban planning system. Boris Johnson is ignoring the wishes of local residents and both Tower Hamlets and Hackney Councils. A strong Green Party voice within the London General Assembly is crucial for redressing the mayor’s follies.”

We currently have 2 Green Party members of the London Assembly, Baroness Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson AM, who have worked hard to provide Londoners with civil partnerships, the Living Wage and a huge increase in the cycling budget, as well as helped design the new Low Emissions Zones. Just imagine what we could accomplish with even more Green members on the Assembly!

Green Party supporters were out in force, and we were joined by members from the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Hackney, and Tower Hamlets and the Young Greens from Queen Mary University. We had a fantastic turn out, and the weather was on our side – only raining after we’d finished our tour of the area and outdoor activities!

Jenny Jones AM, who has served on the Assembly since it was established in 2000, said “It’s great to see so many local Green Party members turning out to support the City and East campaign launch. East London has a vibrant and growing community of dedicated Green Party supporters, and if the enthusiasm on display here today is anything to go by, you can be sure they’ll be making their voices heard loud and clear in the run-up to the London Assembly elections in May!”

If you’d like to make your voice heard too, we’ve launched a crowdfunder campaign this week, to help us pay for the election deposit and campaign materials.

Rachel Collinson, is determined to provide a voice to the people of East London who share our vision to create an inclusive, prosperous, safe area for people to lead productive, well connected lives.

To do this, we need to raise money for our election campaign. This money will go directly to help us stand our candidates and ensuring our vision for a fairer future is delivered to every constituent. By building a Green voice in East London, we can capitalise on the current Green surge and work towards Green success throughout London.

Green Party members of the London Assembly have achieved great things, please help Rachel to carry on their work for a fairer, healthier London for all.

Why Rachel Collinson is sticking with the Greens – and you should too!

The election of Jeremy Corbyn is another happy milestone in the journey of British politics out of the right wing hinterland and into the sunny dales of People-over-Profit. The news that he got over 50% of the vote in a 4-way contest was glorious. A poke in the eye for the establishment.

Not only that, it means the Overton Window (if you don’t know about that, it’s worth reading up on) is shifting rapidly back to centre ground. This bodes well for us as a nation.

But, I have a warning for you, my lovely leftie friends. Don’t think that the Labour leopard is about to change its spots, just because one turned out to be a benign mole.

“OUCH! That’s a bit harsh,” I hear you say. “Bitter, much?”

Alright, I know what it looks like. But hear me out, like the open-minded sage I know you are.

Just like you, at one point I was prepared to bet the farm on Labour. I even signed up to volunteer for them at a high level. But what I saw was an organisation unwilling to listen to its members, preferring to trust in its old (failed) guard. An organisation unprepared for a society with a culture and technology that have changed beyond recognition since the 1980s.

Fast-forward 2 years and alas, that’s still the reality. Like the decades-long moribund Battersea Power Station, the only hope for Labour is that Momentum is able to transform the old structures.

I’m sorry, but I don’t hold out much hope for that. Why? There are too many hints that the foundations are sandy. Here’s a few:

A reluctance to collaborate

As the resurgent Left grapples with our new political landscape, Labour have shown a disappointing lack of interest in collaborative politics. I applaud Caroline Lucas’ stance, offering an open hand to other parties who share the will to implement policies where they overlap.

I also applaud the stance of councillors here in East London who are open to working together on problems that affect us all. However, there are precious few hints that Labour MPs are open to joint projects, whether that’s an alliance, a pact or sharing of resources. There’s no understanding that this kind of politics can benefit all parties.

In the meantime, Caroline Lucas continues to do Corbyn’s job (for example, relaunching the Railways Bill) while Labour continues its public squabble over Old vs New.

Since 1997, Labour have bought into the Tory idea that winning elections is all about winning over the media. Ed Miliband’s over-coached speech-making, the stone of doom, and romancing Russell Brand were all cringey symptoms of this problem.

Corbyn’s ability to listen and rally the ranks of ordinary people is masterful. But his ground troops haven’t yet caught up. Labour’s canvassing strategy is, frankly, broken. Those doing it well were told by HQ that they were misbehaving and should follow orders from on high.

Having seen the Green Party’s plans to re-engage people in politics from the ground up, I can tell you that they surpass anything Labour has yet devised. The astonishing swing to the Green Party in Bristol West – one of the biggest in English election history – is testament to this.

A lack of commitment to democratic reform

Labour let us down badly in 1997, when they had the chance to reform the House of Lords and change our voting system. However, no lessons have been learned from this. The Old Labour souls seem to pine for the old times (in reality, all ten minutes of them) when First Past the Post served this country well.

If Labour were the party this country really deserved, they’d be all over the opportunity to reform our voting system and end the hereditary principle once and for all. We’d be seeing murmurs of land reform and an end to Royal interference in politics. Sadly, no dice. Not even loaded ones!

There are many more policies and qualities I could list where the Green Party has a huge edge over Labour in solving the UK’s (and the world’s) deepest problems. Such as Land Value Tax, devolution of power as far as possible, Community Land Trusts, Citizens’ income, net neutrality, investment of 1% of GDP in research, restorative justice, Positive Money, Piketty’s wealth tax… the list is extensive.

Yes, I love Corbyn. I especially love the hope that he’s inspired in hundreds of thousands of people. But as far as I can see, he’s more the establishment’s no-tie naughty boy. Not the Messiah.

Will the red shoots of growth around him become fruitful plants?

I hope I am wrong about this. But if I’m judging by the ground these seedlings are growing in, we’ll be waiting a long time for that to happen.

And that, in summary, is why I’m sticking with the Green Party. I am prouder of my membership now than I’ve ever been.

Rachel Collinson is Newham Green Party’s Chair, and is currently running as a candidate for City and East London in the London Assembly elections in May.